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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Spotlight on UgolyE (@UgolyE)

PRYOR, OK – After producing more than 160 vocal tracks for other artists, the “Snippet King” is releasing his own CD under the name UgolyE (pronounced Ugly-E).

The new CD is called “Last Chance to Listen,” and features a mixture of mainstream hip-hop, underground and feel-good R&B reminiscent of music from the 1990s and early 2000s. Accordingly to UgolyE – a name which serves as an anagram for Universal God of Lyrics You Enjoy – the CD project came about as a result of many years in the recording studio producing for other artists and wanting to create a sound that he wasn’t finding throughout the genre currently.

“This is a way to showcase myself as an artist,” UgolyE said. “I’ve been operating as a business person and producer for the last 15 or 16 years, and as I got to looking at the state of urban music right now, I decided that instead of working with artists it was time for me to put out one of my own. This CD is really a rendition of what I think urban music should be.”

This is actually the second album UgolyE has put out – though his first one came out in 2002 at the start of his career. “Last Chance to Listen” represents a maturity in song-writing and music that he said comes from so many years of creating sounds for others.

One of the first singles off of the CD is called “Thousand-aire,” and is a playful riff of the attitudes that many hip-hop artists have in regards to money.

“It’s a fun kind of club song, but the lyrics refer to being in the middle class tax bracket,” UgolyE said. “A lot of hip-hop artists today glorify the fact that you should have money, in terms of being ballers and that sort of them. With this song I break it down into being a class of non-millionaires. I poke fun at those people, and basically talk about stepping down from a perspective of being something that they’re not. Many of these guys are flaunting that they have money even though they don’t. This is where most of the guys are and they don’t admit it. You’re not a millionaire, you just act like it.”

UgolyE said he was first drawn to rap and R&B as a young boy growing up in New York City. The neighborhood in which he grew up was also home to artists like Noreaga and Capone – who he would run into from time to time. They would encourage him to pursue music, and he took those early conversations and began to experiment with sounds associated with some of his favorite early R&B musicians, such as Smokey Robinson.

“I don’t think I sound like anything else out there right now,” he said. “I’m a contemporary hip-hop artist who uses a unique blend of R&B flavor. It’s a mature approach to hip-hop, and I feel like I make mature, feel-good music for everyday people. This is the kind of music that you drive around in your car listening to. Nobody has any themes anymore, and nobody makes records, albums or CDs in the traditional album format like they used to. I wanted to put together something you could put in and listen to for 45 minutes or an hour and have something intriguing.”

Those interested in following UgolyE can do so through social media by searching UgolyE on both Twitter and Facebook. All of his music, as well as more information about him as an artist, can be found at ugolyebeats.com.